Edward Buzzell ("At The
Circus"/"Go West"/"Song of the Thin Man") bases the film on a lightweight Broadway
musical. Under Buzzell's heavy-handed uninspired direction, the
film hardly puts its best foot forward. The studio bosses woo the youth market, while making it a star vehicle for MGM's
newestacquisition Lucille
Ball. The star moves over from playing in cheaply made B films for RKO
to this glossy A production film in
gorgeous Technicolor, where she gets the full star treatment. Five cast
members from the original show (Tom Dix, Nancy Walker, June Allyson, Jack Jordan and Kenny Bowers) are retained (though some in different
roles), as are all of the musical numbers except for "Shady Lady Bird." The bland film offers a few peppy numbers
like "Buckle Down,
Winsocki" and, added for the movie, Harry James's signature number "Flight of the
Bumblebee" and "The Two O'Clock Jump." Also added was
Lucy singing "You're Lucky" (which was dubbed by Martha Mears).
Unfortunately
most of the musical numbers were inconsequential, as staged by
Charles
Walters.

MGM's leading
musical producer Arthur Freed pushed to do the film after
catching the 1941 stage version in New York, and the studio bought the
rights from Columbia. The film turned a nice
profit, though its old-fashioned formulaic story was banal and never
caught my interest. It's based on the book by John Cecil
Holm,
with Holm, Irving Brecher and Fred Finklehoffe providing the
screenplay.

Lucille Ball is a popular glamorous Hollywood actress whose
star is
fading and reluctantly agrees to a publicity stunt her nervy agent Jack O'Riley (William Gaxton) arranges in order to get her name in the
newspapers to pique the interests of the studios, as she travels 3,000
miles east
by train to attend in a small town in Pennsylvania a senior prom at Winsocki military prep school after a
senior cadet, Bud Hooper (Tommy
Dix),
writes her a fan letter and asks her to be his date. Bud is surprised
she accepts, which complicates things since he promised his girlfriend Helen Schlesinger (Virginia
Weidler) he would take her to
the prom and now has to lie to her that he's sick. To the rescue come
Bud's playful cadet friends, Dutch Miller (Kenny Bowers) and Harvey
"Hunk" Hoyt (Jack Jordan), who convince
the naive Bud
to take Lucy to the prom under Helen's name. The awkward situation leads to a
misunderstanding between Lucy and the jealous Helen, when Helen
unexpectedly comes to the prom. Things escalate out of control when the
school authorities threaten to expel Bud for lying, when they discover
the truth. But predictably there's a happy ending for everyone, even
after the newspaper photos of
Lucy causing a riot at the prom by hayseed local reporter Chester Shoat
(Chill Wills) go national. But things get patched up as expected and
everyone walks away with a smile--except the not targeted audience, who
had to endure such stiff comedy, awkward acting, forgettable music and
a trivial story line.

For vile comic relief, the supposed ugly duckling Nancy Walker is a rejected
blind date who is bellyaching throughout the prom that she can't even
get a cadet to dance with her because of her looks.